Sacrifice Myself For You
by KAWAIIwolf-luvr
Summary: COMPLETE! Harry finally enters the final showdown with Voldemort, but enters alone. Can Draco save him from doing something stupid or will Harry die trying to save his two best friends? Set after 6th Bk. Prequel! PreSLASH!
1. Deaph and Moste Difficultas Incantare

**Sacrifice Myself For You** (mainpair- _HP/DM)_

**Summary: **Sorry, but, like everyone admits, my summary also sucks… well… here goes… When Harry finally enters the final showdown with Voldemort, he enters it alone. Can Draco save him from doing something stupid or will Harry die in the process of saving his two best friends? Prequel to 'Death Is Never Clearly Defined' (title subject to change) (DM/HP, RL/SB, RW/HG) (set after 6th book)

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Chapter 1: **_Deaph and Moste Difficultas Incantare_**

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing but the leather strips tying Draco, Ron, and Harry to my bed… (cough cough)

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>>November 2, 2005

"No! I can't believe he would be that reckless!" yelled Sirius, his voice hoarse. Remus Lupin, his eyes haunted, remained silent as Sirius ranted, too choked up to speak. Typically, it was right then that Snape decided to intrude through the doorway.

He took the sight in with glance and firmly stated, "We didn't even know he was gone until the next morning."

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_**>>Halloween Day- October 31, 2005 **_

Harry slammed his fist into the wall of the infirmary. "MISTER POTTER! If you break that hand one more time I will make you let it heal the Muggle way! Now SIT DOWN!" Madam Pomfrey yelled shrilly, glaring at him. She turned back around and muttered "_Ferula_" at Snape's arm. Harry watched as bandages spun up the broken appendage and then splinted the arm.

Harry had just woken up in the infirmary in the late afternoon the day after a long fight against a group of Death Eaters. Snape was there with the Death Eaters. He had saved Harry's life. Dumbledore had shown up, from the dead; or at least that was what Harry had thought. Dumbledore had already explained that he had performed a Death Spell to fake his death (and to jolt Malfoy into the real world that he didn't actually want to be a Death Eater) and had still been alive, just in hiding. The explanation had just confused Harry even more. He had no clue what a Death Spell was.

Harry put a hand to his head and sat on the edge of one of the beds, dry-eyed when there should have been tears streaming down his face, trying to sort out all of the information swirling in his already over-taxed mind.

'Ron… Hermione…' Both of them had been captured by Death Eaters when Harry had been busy trying to fight off Lucius Malfoy. No one had thought to even tell him until the fight was over and most of the Death Eaters had Disapparated. The Order had stopped the attack with few casualties and no deaths on their side. But then Harry had fainted from a huge amount of pain from his scar. Voldemort had been happy. Extremely happy.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. He stood up and walked out of the infirmary when Madam Pomfrey wasn't looking, but he could feel Snape's eyes drilling holes into the back of his head. Wishing he could give him the rude gesture he wanted to without being caught, he settled for cursing him in his mind badly enough that even Snape would have flinched at the suggestions. (1)

Harry walked blindly down the hallways, letting his mind think of other things than where his feet were taking him.

'Why wasn't Voldemort there? At a huge fight like that, he should have been there… Even if Voldemort was scared of Professor Dumbledore- wait… no, he already proved that he wasn't…' Harry absently stopped at an open window. From where he was standing, he could see the Quiddich field. About a dozen or so people on broomsticks were in the air, flying around, passing around a bright red ball in the lengthening afternoon. Harry turned away when their laughter reached his ears. 'Plus I doubt he would pass up any chance he could get rid of either me or Dumbledore. And why was he happy? We stopped the mission, so… Damnit… This isn't helping. I'm tal-… _thinking_ in circles…' Harry sighed and rubbed circles with his index fingers on each temple. Then, a sudden thought pretty much smacked him upside the head.

'He was happy… because the mission _didn't_ fail…' Harry went to hit his head on the wall, but stopped himself because he knew that if he showed up to tell the professors his suspicions, Pomfrey would throw another hissy fit about the large bump that would probably be the result. 'The whole point of that was to capture Ron and Hermione. Merlin… Why didn't I see it before!' Harry felt the hole in his stomach widen immensely. It was all his fault that they had been captured. It was always his fault. If he had killed Voldemort earlier, all those people, including Sirius, from the attacks would be alive right now. Not to mention Percy and Ginny would be alive. Voldemort had discovered soon after 6th year that Harry had dated her. She was the second to die that summer, Percy, the git that had thought Harry was mad during 5th year, was first… because he had stood between her and Voldemort.

Harry shook his head to try to clear it of the morbid thoughts. For lack of anything better to do, he headed for the library.

Harry slowly slipped '_Deaph and Moste Difficultas Incantare_' off of the dusty shelf in the back of the Restricted Section and then glanced at the clock to his left. 8:17 PM. Madam Pince was sick, luckily, and her substitute (who she argued most thoroughly against because she didn't 'trust her precious books to anyone but herself') wasn't in the library (he winced for the poor woman if Madam Pince came in and the library was being unattended), so he felt pretty confident that no one would notice the choice of books that he was taking out. He had looked through about 20 different books whose titles had a possibility of being the book that he wanted, but none had even the slightest reference to what he was searching for.

Harry flipped through the old and worn pages, being careful not to do anything to it that might make Madam Pince suddenly swoop down on him (as she was known to do if she even remotely felt that her books were being mistreated). He played with the edge of the page as he skimmed through the footnotes in the beginning. 'Nothing… nothing… nothing… nothing… no-… hmm…' Harry paused and reread the note. 'It's slim, but a possibility…'

He hurriedly flipped to the page marked under the note. '245... 279... 282... Here it is… 296... That's it!' Harry excitedly read the short passage about the spell. He had nothing else to do so he figured that he might as well be working out how the bloody hell Dumbledore had made his 'death' look so real. Not to mention they had actually buried a real body… No one had figured that it wasn't Dumbledore… it even had the same magical signature as him. 'Creepily enough,' Harry added to himself. Harry noticed that the page looked to be more worn and torn than most of the rest of the book. 'Merlin, please let the whole spell be intact…' Just under the paragraph about Noloportuses (Portkeys that can't be traced back to the place they departed from), it read:

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'**Death Spell'**: Incantation said: "_Defunctus Filistrocium_," Process: 'The wizard attempting the spell taps him/herself on the head and shouts incantation.'

'This spell is a heavily guarded secret that not many wizards are entrusted with having the knowledge of. The spell weaves an extremely reliable and graphic illusion around everyone within seeing distance of the caster. People/creatures that are caught in the weave will not remember the casting of the spell, for it is erased from their minds in order to cast a more believable illusion. The spell caster will then automatically be transported to a place outside of the range of the illusion where they will not be seen suddenly appearing. They will also have an illusion plac-'

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Harry slammed the book down on the table. The rest of the passage had been ripped out of the book, just as he had feared. 'Illusion placed on _what_!' he thought viciously. He flipped to the next page. 'Maybe someone accidentally ripped it and then stuck it in the next page…'

He saw a spell for breathing dragon fire (_Tartemsempra_: tap yourself on the head twice and say spell to breathe dragon's fire at will. **Counter:**_ Icemsempra_) but other than that, nothing. 'Maybe the page before the spell…' Nothing. He shook the book by the spine to see if anything fell out. Nothing.

"Shit!" he snapped, earning him a glare from a nearby girl with short, curly hair. When she realized who she was glaring at, her eyes widened and she stammered an apology. Harry sighed and then grabbed the book again from when he had flung it onto the other side of the table.

He walked out of the library, trying to look inconspicuous. He stared walking faster when he noticed Madam Pince hurry into the library, coming from the opposite direction than he had turned, her nose bright red and a box of Tiff's Ultra-soft (booger/snot-eliminating tissues) clutched in her claw-like fingers. Harry coughed and then quicken his pace even more as she disappeared around the corner and into the library. Her indignant screech from finding the library unattended sent him flying down the hallway, laughing hard enough to almost make him trip on a few first-years that had not been walking fast enough down the hall.

'Poor Madam Rynn…' he though, blessing the poor woman for pretty much causing a diversion for him.

Harry stopped in one of the empty classrooms on the second floor and reread the passage again. It was just the same as when he had first read it. He flipped through the rest of the pages carefully, running the spell through his mind (_Defunctus Filistrocium_) and every now and then, chanting "Shit, shit, shit," under his breath. When he heard a sudden cackling above him, he jumped about three feet in the air. Luckily for him, Peeves hadn't noticed Harry yet. He hurriedly slipped back into the hall and almost ran over another group of students, first year Hufflepuffs, from what he could see. They practically run from him. 'I think Ron was right… they are cheeky midgets…' The sudden thought of Ron was painful, but he choked it back.

'Why haven't we had any word from the Death Eaters yet?' Harry suddenly realized, rubbing at his eyes. 'If they had wanted to use them as bait or something, wouldn't they have sent a ransom note?' ('like in Muggle movies,') He shook his head and searched his mind for a place that he might be able to read the book in private.

'… Duh…' Harry berated himself for not going there sooner. As soon as he reached the familiar portrait of the Trolls, he walked quickly by it 3 times, thinking hard of a quiet place to read. As usual, the door to the Room of Requirement appeared, so he hurriedly opened the door.

The room was furnished similarly to the room that he had used for the DA meeting room. It had maroon furnishings, but instead of pillows and pads, there was a large overstuffed couch to sink into in front of a large fireplace with a large jar on the mantle. A large open window opened up over the lake ('strange since a window had never before appeared in the room'). There were shelves upon shelves of books on useful spells for dueling and fighting against large numbers of wizards. Also, there was a large mirror in the room, similar to the Mirror of Erised. Actually it looked like something in McGonagall's… no… since he was still alive… then it was again Dumbledore's office. Harry almost grinned at that. He was overjoyed that Dumbledore was still alive. Even at the funeral, it had taken forever to sink in, like he was going to pop up at any second, yet he never had.

His mind turning back to more prominent things in his mind, Harry sunk into the squishy chair and opened the book he had stolen from the library. Not finding anything else on the subject, he grabbed one of the books on the shelves.

The very first spell was a water freezing spell. 'O-okay… not exactly what I am looking for but it might help…' Harry looked around the room, searching for a bowl or something that he could hold water with. Surprisingly, he spotted a rather large bin that would be perfect for the job. He dragged it across the floor to the middle of the room and then said "_Aguamenti,_" Clear water shot from the end of his wand and filled the basin in no time, so he again grabbed the book and looked at the incantation.

"_Hydro Hoxymus_" Harry says clearly. He sees a sheet of sparking mist shoot out of his wand and hit the water, but it only freezes a small amount of the water, and the ice isn't very thin. He melts the ice with the "_Relashio_" spell and then tries it again. About the third time, he gets the whole basin to freeze over, almost freezing the basin to the floor, too. The ice over the water is inches thick (he can't tell exactly how thick) but it looks thick enough to walk on. Elated with his success, he grabbed the book from the library yet again, remembering the spell for breathing dragon's fire.

Harry pushed all of the stuff in the middle of the room off to one side and then tapped his head with his wand 2 times and said, "_Tartemsempra_." He felt a mild tickling sensation in the back of his throat and then he took a deep breath and forced the air out of his lungs in a literal explosion. A huge blast of fire came out of his mouth and almost singed the couch, clear on the other side of the enormous room. This time, he did grin.

'And I thought that was supposed to be in the range of being hard to impossible, at least, according to that book…' He cast the counter spell, "_Icemsempra_," and then forced the air out of his lungs again, making sure the counter worked. Harry saw a small plume of smoke come out his mouth, but nothing else after that. 'Hermione would be proud…' He thought, his stomach worked to unclench again from the thought of his two best friends. He practiced a few other spells, but there is now way to know if some of them worked because he couldn't cast them in the circumstances that he was in at the time. The Noloportus one, while he wasn't sure why he was learning it, would be one of the spells he couldn't practice. 'I just hope I can cast them when I need to…' Harry thought solemnly. He snapped the book shut and stood there, enjoying the peace and quiet for a moment.

He looked at his watch and started to groan. 'Old habits die hard I guess,' he thought, wryly. Since he wasn't a student any longer, Harry had no reason to be back in his rooms by the 9:00 PM curfew. His watch had read 10:28 PM. Out of his pocket, he pulled the Marauder's Map. Snape and Madam Pince were still in the infirmary, Dumbledore and McGonagall in Dumbledore's office.

'I'll go to Dumbledore and see what he has in mind for saving Ron and Hermione.' Turning to the door, Harry felt a wisp of wind catch him across the nape of his neck. He shivered, and then froze. 'The window was closed…' He quickly turns to the window, and nearly has a heart attack when a large brownish owl, it's head supporting tufts of feathers that look like horns, screeched at him. There was a letter attached to his leg, so Harry tried to quickly grab it. The owl though, squawked and swiped at his arm, leaving three deep, bloody gashes. Harry went for the letter again, this time more slowly. The owl eyed his suspiciously, but allowed him to take the letter from it's pouch. It was addressed to Dumbledore, not to him. Harry glared shortly at the owl for delivering the letter to him and not to Dumbledore. But the owl just kept looking so innocent. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Sorry I startled you…" Harry whispered soothingly to it. Since he had been planning on visiting Hedwig in the Owlery later on, he had stashed some Owl Treats in his jeans pocket, so he dug a couple out and gave it a few. It nipped him sharply at first, but obviously it had been a long flight, so it accepted the Treats as an apology for startling it at first. Harry glanced down at the long gashes on his arm.

'Don't see why I'm the one apologizing…' Harry thought, slightly irritated. The owl must have followed his gaze because it turned it's eyes upon the cuts and nipped him on the finger apologetically. It seemed to have taking a liking to him, because it glided up to his shoulder when he tried to leave.

"I guess I can stay a while…" Harry smiled. The eagle owl, Harry was pretty sure that that was what it was, was pretty lovable now that he had broken the ice. It's fierce, golden gaze was already disarmed by Harry's kind gesture.

"I wonder why you delivered this to me…" Harry thought out loud. The owl looked at him innocently enough and then nibbled on his finger again, so Harry gave it another couple of treats. His gaze wandered to the letter, still clutched in his hand. The owl suddenly snatched the letter with his beak and then flew down to the floor. Harry sighed and then gave the owl a stern look, hoping it wouldn't tear the letter. As Harry bent down to reach for it, the owl flew to another spot and then switched the letter to it's clawed foot. He grabbed at the wax seal with his now free beak and tore it off the letter. Harry groaned. Then the owl flew up into rafters that hadn't been there a few moments ago and started nibbling on the edges of the now open letter. Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Harry stopped almost directly below the owl and looked straight up, just as the owl let go of the letter.

Harry grabbed the opened letter in mid air. He shook the hand with the letter in it at the bird still out of reach, sitting in the rafters. He noticed a couple words of the letter, so he did a double check. It was what he had been waiting for. Silently thanking the owl as it finally flew out the window (curiously enough, after it had practically made Harry read the letter), Harry read and reread the letter. He swallowed back a moan, but then steeled himself. He had known that this was coming, just hadn't wanted to believe it. Harry straightened his back and then strode out of the room determinedly. In his rooms, he grabbed his invisibility cloak and made sure to tuck the Marauder's Map safely in his pocket. He grabbed his wand from the stand he had left it on and looked back in his room one last time.

Harry sighed and whisked the cloak over his shoulders and then pulled the hood over his head. Turning left from his room, he almost, _almost_, ran headlong into Remus Lupin. Harry swallowed. Lupin still looked worse for wear, his eyes sunken and his robes tattered. He had been looking worse and worse ever since Sirius's death, Harry realized. Harry gave an apologetic look at his retreating back and bit back a sigh. 'It's not going to get easier for him…'

Remus suddenly spun around, his eyes wide, looking straight at Harry. Harry shrunk back as Lupin stepped closer, still looking straight at Harry. Harry moved to the right, but Lupin didn't follow him with his eyes. He stopped a few inches from where Harry had been and looked around, but he must have dismissed what he heard because he turned back to the way he had been going a moment before and hurried around the corner. Harry almost breathed a sigh of relief, but kept it back just in case.

Harry crept his way to the stone gargoyle, but stayed around the corner, afraid that it would open at any moment and Dumbledore (who Harry was pretty sure could see through invisibility cloaks) would come out of his office with McGonagall. Harry checked the Map again and then breathed a sigh of relief. They had already left the office. Harry looked at the map again and surprisingly, saw a speech bubble next to himself on the map. It said "_Sugar Quill_." 'That's the kind of password he would use, too…' Harry blinked, but followed the map's advice and said the password out loud. He was rewarded when the stone gargoyle jumped aside and allowed him into the spiral staircase into Dumbledore's office.

Careful to not let himself be seen by the many (apparently) snoozing portraits, he moved swiftly over to the large book shelves on the left side of the office. In a glass, door-less cabinet next to the shelf with the Sorting Hat sitting on it, was the Triwizard Cup, sitting there innocently enough. Actually… it was a Portkey. The spell had been deactivated from the graveyard by the Death Eaters where it had transported him during 4th year, but the Death Eaters had supposedly reactivated it from their side. From the graveyard. And it would only activate for Harry.

Slowly, Harry probed the case for spells of detection. There were only a couple simple ones that would alert Dumbledore if the case was opened. Harry put a timed release on the case so that the spells would just be pushed aside for a matter of time (a spell that Hermione had actually invented not too long ago) and then grabbed the cup out of the cabinet. It was still a few minutes to 11, when the Portkey would activate, so Harry grabbed the letter, scribbled a few words on the back, and then whispered "_Tima Deliberare,_" a spell that would wait to deliver the letter to Dumbledore. Harry set the green clock to 8:00AM and then set the dial to the next day, November 1, 2005. The letter disappeared with a pop, so Harry was confident that it would appear on Dumbledore's desk at the appropriate time the next day.

Harry heard a familiar scraping coming from the doorway where the stairway was, so he knew that the gargoyle was moving to the side. 'Never knew it was so loud,' Harry thought humorlessly. He heard multiple footsteps coming slowly but deliberately up the stairs. He checked the map. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, and Mrs. Weasley were coming up the staircase.

'Damnit! Ring you stupid clock!' Harry heard the doorknob on the door into the room being turned. Then, three things happened in quick succession. First, he heard a soft toll behind him, coming from the large clock behind Dumbledore's desk. Next he felt a pull from somewhere around his navel. And then, he disappeared.

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Notes:

(1) Sorry, Snape lovers, but he DID hurt Harry pretty badly when he was escaping during 6th year…


	2. Clone of the Original Bastard

**Chapter 2: Clone of the Original Bastard**

**Disclaimer: **I just own Dra- (you: #hits on head#) Oww… #sigh# … I just own Har- (#hits again#) Oww… I own Ro- (#hits one more time#) OWW! #glare# FINE! I BOUGHT LIFESIZE VERSIONS OF THEM OFF E-BAY! HAPPY?

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**Note:**

This story won't be very many chapters… It is on purpose. The real storyline starts with the 'Sequel'… actually… I don't know if I should call it the sequel or not… cuz this is the prequel… so… hmm…

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#_blah, blah, blah_#: speech in Parseltongue

_Blah blah blah:_ spell or accented word

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_**>>October 31, 2005/ November 1, 2005 >>**_

Harry looked around the deserted graveyard, still clutching the now inactivated Portkey in his hand. It was virtually untouched from when he had last seen it 3 years previous. The cauldron, now rusting from the weather, that had resurrected Voldemort still stood at the base of one of the larger headstones in the graveyard. Harry shivered as a chilly wind brushed over his arms.

The graveyard, now that he had a chance to see it in detail (even though it was extremely dark out) looked like no one had been buried in there for years. It had to be at least a couple miles big in either direction. The gravestones that he had come across were no younger than 50 years at least.

Harry thought he saw a few rundown buildings in the distance, but in the dim light, he couldn't be sure from that distance. Harry stood there, waiting, in the dark. He didn't want to light his wand for fear of giving the Death Eaters an advantage of, number one, being able to see him by the light, and two, not being able to see them from being blinded by the light.

He looked at the Triwizard Cup still in his hand. He put it on the ground and duplicated it for effect. Then he concentrated on where he wanted it to connect to, and whispered, "Noloportus." The cup glowed a brilliant blue that Harry could have been sure was seen for miles, but no one showed up. He was pretty certain that it worked because the book had described it.

Standing back up, he cast another timed release spell so that it wouldn't activate if he picked it up and he shrunk it so it fit easily in his palm and also in his robe's pocket. He looked towards the place where he and Voldemort had dueled, and saw something move on the ground.

The enormous, shadowy form literally had to slither across the ground before Harry realized that it was Nagini, Voldemort's precious snake… and the second to last remaining Horcrux. He, Hermione, and Ron had destroyed two Horcruxes when it had taken Dumbledore a few years just to _find _one, but the last two were still in Voldemort's possession. They had found Hufflepuff's cup and had found the person that had eventually destroyed Slytheren's locket fairly easily, it seemed to Harry.

The other artifact that they had destroyed was a jeweled cane with a large silver raven perched on top. It was the harder of the two to find since they hadn't known what to look for; but since the only artifact in existence that belonged to Gryffindor was never in Voldemort's possession, that narrowed the list down a bit. Hermione had amazingly found an old journal in Hogwarts that belonged to one of the four founders and it had mentioned that Ravenclaw was very fond of the cane that Gryffindor had transfigured for her. So, they somehow managed to find it.

Harry shivered again when the snake came closer, it's eyes shimmering a bright greenish; the color of the killing curse. 'If I could somehow keep a hold of it… I could use it as insurance that Hermione and Ron get out of here… then I could kill it and then even if I don't survive, the Order would have a fighting chance at killing Voldemort…' Harry swallowed at the suicidal thoughts. It scared him… that there was a pretty good chance he might die this very night.

Harry practically willed the huge snake to just _try_ to take a shot at him. The snake, sensing that he was not afraid, slithered closer, it's eyes never leaving Harry's.

#_Grrreetingsss, t-ongue brother…_# Harry started. How did she realize that he was a Parselmouth? #_Do not look ssso sssurprised t-ongue brother, hisss knowledge isss not f-ar from my own th-oughtsss_# she hisses soothingly, gliding closer the whole time. Harry then realized and fully appreciated the size of the snake. He bent down to see her better.

#_Then you know of his workingsss?_# he asks. He didn't exactly translate it right since before he only had to say a single sentence or a short string of words. Never an actual conversation. It was slightly unnerving now that he thought about it. 'I guess that's why others are so disturbed by it.'

#_Yesss… wouldn't you like to know…_# She was now even closer, her nose about five feet away from his head. She swayed her head back and forth, her eyes reflecting the almost nonexistent light. Finally, Harry realized what she was doing and blinked for the first time since he had looked into her eyes. He snapped his head back as she lunged at his face.

"_STUPEFY!_" he shouted, a lucky reflex. The snake crumpled at his feet and then the air was filled with deafening noise as about twenty-five odd people in black hooded cloaks Apparated to the graveyard, all of them at the same time and all of them holding their wands in the air, the Lumos spell already activated. He was immediately surrounded in an impenetrable circle of black masses.

Harry automatically pointed his wand at the snake's head. His eyes searched the faces under the robes until they landed on a figure with a distinctly un-earthy feel to him. He narrowed his eyes in a glare. Harry could practically feel Voldemort's sinister smile spread as he stepped forward from the black mass of his followers, who spread out to cover the hole that his absence made in the circle.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Harry shouted at him. His red eyes flashed angrily, but he held his arm out and two Death Eaters that were outside the circle glided into the inner circle. Both of them were dragging a body behind them and they threw them unceremoniously at Harry's feet after casting the "_Ennervate_" spell.

Both Ron's and Hermione's eyes fluttered open after a second and then both of them gasped as they got their bearings. Hermione's eyes found Harry's fearfully. Her bottom lip trembled and she worked to swallow. Neither of them had ever been this close at one time to the whole group of the Death Eaters, let alone to Voldemort himself.

"H-harry…" she whimpered. Then she must have realized what Harry had done to get them back and her eyes practically lit on fire. "Harry," she said, a note of warning in her tone. "Please tell me that you didn't do what I think you did to get us back…" Harry stiffened and his eyes left her gaze hurriedly. Ron's eyes widened. Neither of them had been tied up, so Hermione stood up unsteadily. Harry grabbed her elbow until she stopped swaying.

Harry stood in front of them so that there was a circle where none of the men in black cloaks couldn't see what they were doing, his hands behind his back. He shoved the Portkey into Hermione's hands and she must have realized what it was because she told Ron to grab a handle of it. She put it forward for Harry to grab also, but he walked forward at the same time, forcing them to cover it by letting their robe's sleeves down over their hands so that it merely looked as though their hands were intertwined.

Harry stopped about fifteen feet in front of Voldemort, (about five feet in front of Hermione and Ron) but only because his scar seared so badly that he clapped his hand to his head and held it there till it subsided slightly.

He looked fixedly at Voldemort and stated boldly, "Alright… now let them go." Voldemort's cruel laugh sent Harry's scar prickling and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He narrowed his eyes.

"Foolish boy… You really think I would let them go?" He laughed again. "Not when there is an anti-Disapparation spell around a five mile area centered at this spot. Only my Death Eaters can leave now." Harry raised his wand threateningly. Voldemort stopped laughing and just smirked at him. "Are you planning on dueling your way out of here then? Your pitiful friends-" he hissed, "-don't even have their wands. How do you expect them to help you in the least?" Harry just stared at him, his gaze level and bored, having heard Hermione and Ron making their way towards him. He waited a minute and then suddenly smirked.

He spun around and, having seen Hermione holding out the cup for him to hurriedly grab, he unloosed the timed spell. It took Hermione only a few seconds before she realized what Harry had done. Harry turned back around as they disappeared and heard her scream his name as they disappeared.

Harry wasted no time. This was going to be the final battle. And Harry vowed to end it that night.

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Harry looked around to where he had left Nagini and then yelled, "_Sectumsempra_!" when he saw the snake had woken up and was speeding towards him. The snake kinda does a weird acrobatics because it had been in mid strike when Harry's spell had hit her. Nagini slumped motionless to the ground, dark blood spreading across the ground. The spell, meant to only wound humans, was powerful enough to kill her.

He heard shouts and yells all around him and looked up just as a flash of green light made it's way towards him. He dodged it and then yelled, "_Muffliato,_" hoping it would help them from coordinating anything. About half of them shielded themselves from the spell. Three of them cast the Crucio spell at the same time, but Harry dodged the one from the tall skinny one and shielded himself from the other two, bulkier forms.

Harry shouted "_Reducto,_" which blasted five Death Eaters backwards, and dived through the opening of the circle that it created. He dodged a few spells that had been cast over his head.

"_Impedimenta,_" he shouted at the man that had been running at him from the right. The man tripped and stayed down and Harry dived behind a headstone just as something hit it with enough force to cause it to rend in two. Harry felt a few fragments hit him in the back and in the head, a couple giving him deep cuts on his face and a deep one on his neck.

He crept behind another one nearby, careful not to be seen. He heard a few shouts from the left that sounded like "_Incarcerous_" and he heard someone curse a few times. 'Hopefully they're getting confused in the darkness.'

Harry saw someone go past the headstone, but he didn't see him, so he softly cast a Confundus Charm, which sent the man off the opposite way from where Harry was. Harry heard him call out a false alarm and a few others scrambling after him. Harry was about to move to another spot, less they get too close, but a second, a woman, her wand lit, caught him.

Harry _Silencio_ed her, but she cast a nonverbal spell. Harry caught the full blow of the Relashio spell and got blasted into a smaller and slightly crumbling headstone. Harry's vision darkened for a second, but he rolled to the side just as the Death Eater cast another spell which actually shattered the stone grave marker. His head still spinning, he saw the woman advancing again.

'Shit… _Levicorpus_' Harry saw the woman fly straight up into the air by her ankle and winced. 'Not the best spell…' He quickly moved away from the woman, who now was signaling to the others that she was in trouble. Harry stuck to the darkest shadows as he made his way across the lawn. He dove to the ground when a sudden flurry of Cruciatus Curses flew at about chest height towards the direction he had disappeared in, so Harry changed course hurriedly. He ran bent nearly in half for about five minutes before he stopped again.

'If I get too far away I'll not be able to circle around them.' That was, in fact what he had accidentally started to do, but that, now that he thought about it, was the best plan of attack.

"_Dismentia_" he whispered. It was another spell from one of the books in the Room of Requirement. It would displace the noise caused by the spell and make it sound like it came from another place.

"_Avis Maxima_" he whispered, even quieter. When his wand should have gone off like a gun, the noise sounded like it had come from near where he had disappeared from the Death Eaters last. It sounded to Harry like the noise came from about fifty feet in front of the closest lit wand, still a ways to Harry's right. He couldn't see the men from where he was sitting, so he couldn't check to see if it worked as a diversion. About twenty or thirty small birds had shot out of the end of his wand when he had said the spell. They started twittering madly as they scattered into the air, so Harry quickly spun around in place and peaked around the side of the headstone.

About three or four Death Eaters were close enough for a clear shot, but the spell worked to Harry's advantage because it didn't have to actually hit them, just be directed towards them. Three of them were using '_Lumos_' to light the others' ways, so Harry pointed his wand at them and whispered, "_Oppungo Multiplus._" Harry quickly ducked down as their howls of pain fill the air. He stayed low to the ground as he ran away, angling to the left, from the lighted area where the Death Eaters were.

He stopped behind a large headstone with a stone angel standing on top of it to catch his breath. He slumped down and panted for a second, still listening to the shouts from the men that were still getting attacked by the clawing and pecking little birds. Harry rubbed the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, wincing a bit when the salt from the sweat mingled in his cuts. He stuck his head above the top of the stone to check if any of the bobbing lights coming from the wands were coming closer, but about half of them were pretty much centered back where his last hiding spot was. The rest were spread out in random places, yet none of them were very far past Harry's spot.

'Yeah… real smart Harry… act don't think… things always go wrong when you think instead of act… ri-ight…' he added sarcastically to himself. 'Okay… if I can get over there without anyone seeing me, I can kill Voldemort… no prob…' Harry looked up at the stars and almost sighed at the impossibility of the situation.

He turned and looked over the top of the headstone again. He could only make out about twenty of the thirty-ish Death Eaters. There was about ten or fifteen _Lumos_ spells going, so they were most likely paired up in twos. They were all congregated to Harry's left and he could see a small trembling form near a larger one that hadn't moved from where the circle had been. "Coward…" Harry growled under his breath. "He hasn't moved a foot…" His breath caught in his throat when he heard a soft footstep behind him.

Harry turned around slowly and was greeted by a wand at his throat. Lucius Malfoy sneered at him in the traditional Malfoy way. Harry gritted his teeth as Lucius opened his mouth to call out to the others. But before he could, a voice called out behind him, "_Silencio._" Malfoy opened his mouth and closed it a couple times experimentally before he rounded on the person that had cast the spell. The man behind him disarmed him quickly and then, as Malfoy stood there in shock, he punched him as hard as he could in the jaw.

Harry wasn't sure, but he could've sworn he heard either a snap or a popping sound as the man's fist connected. Malfoy flew about five feet and then skidded to a halt, unmoving.

"Waited six months to do that…" the man grunted. Harry looked up into the dark grey eyes of his rescuer, Draco Malfoy. Harry just sat there, dazed, until Draco actually lightly slapped Harry to his senses.

"I swear if you don't bloody come to your senses, Potter…" Draco panted, his eyes narrowed in either anger or distaste… 'or both,' Harry added. Harry could see a trail of blood on his cheek and a large cut on his forehead.

"You… your actually bloody helping me?" Harry whispered ferociously. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

"You really are a bloody git aren't you… I can't believe you haven't heard all the shouts about a traitor!" Harry shook his head angrily and stood up so he wasn't looking up at Malfoy.

"I was just a tad bit _busy_!" he snapped. Harry grabbed Malfoy suddenly by the nape of his neck and pushed him forward into the ground behind the angel as a light bobbed by them. Harry hoped they wouldn't see the unconscious form of the senior Malfoy on the ground. Draco Malfoy slicked his hair back with his free hand once they had passed by.

"You mussed my _hair_!" Malfoy growled in a low, dangerous voice. Harry blinked twice and then had to clap a hand over his mouth to keep from snorting in laughter. Draco Malfoy glared and then looked away, acting like he was searching for Death Eaters.

"Was that a- a _joke_?"

"… don't have a bloody heart attack, Potter…"

"And this coming from the original cold bastard… scratch that, the clone of him." Harry received a glare.

"I am anything _but _the clone of the original cold bastard, even if I _do _get the good looks from him…" he muttered coldly.

"Are you still on the sanity ladder?" Harry asked in a falsely cheery, yet inquisitive voice. Malfoy snorted and then turned away. 'Merlin…' Harry thought to himself, amused and slightly disturbed. Then the gravity of the situation came back full force. Harry stood in a crouch, ready to change spots again, but Malfoy stopped him.

"You do realize that I can Apparate both of us out of here?" he disgustedly spat. It was clear to Harry that he didn't want to actually help Harry, but, Harry figured, it might get him points with the good side. He shook his head but stopped when his head started to spin.

"No… you can leave but I need to end this… no matter what happens… too many people have died already…"

Harry took off running to the left again, staying bent low, but not bothering otherwise to stay out of sight. He winced when his sore back protested. He could have sworn he heard Malfoy mutter, "and he wonders if _I'm_ on the sanity ladder…"

Harry made it halfway to Voldemort before he came across the first group of Death Eaters. Unfortunately, this group was more alert than the idiots that he had been coming across. The sudden flurry of shouts coming from the opposite direction than the last alert had come from confused a lot of the Death Eaters, but most still came running.

Harry only had a few precious moments to ditch these ones and hide before the rest came, so he stood up to full height and yelled "_Expelliarmus._" Of the four, only two were disarmed. The one actually held on to his wand so tight that he soared through the air towards Harry. Harry ducked, but the man's flailing boot kicked him in the side.

Harry hit the ground hard and gasped "_Incarcerous_" at the other one that hadn't lost his wand. It bound him tightly in ropes, but the other two, forgetting about their wands, still advanced on Harry as he lay there gasping for air, his side on fire.

Harry, at the last possible second, looked up and shouted "_Reducto,_" sending them both flying through the air. Harry ducked low and tried to keep the others from seeing him, but one spotted him and called an alarm, throwing an Impediment Jinx his way. Harry dodged it by throwing himself over the side of a small hill he had been climbing to get away from them.

He heard a female voice mutter "This is stupid, _Morsmordre_" and then everything was lit up in a bright green light. Harry looked up and saw a vast, green, glittering skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke above him.

Harry winced when he was immediately spotted, but he also heard an angry yell to put the mark out, something about it attracting the Ministry's attention. Then Harry heard something that almost made his heart stop. Draco Malfoy was screaming.

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>>>>> 

**Acknowledgements:**

**>>>>>**

**To: Anonymous: Random Kid-** Thank you sooo very much for reviewing! #munches on cake# MY CAKE! … Yeah… I'll admit right now… I re-eally don't think I was ever _on_ the sanity ladder… And… somehow… I was strangely reminded of Gollum when I read your review… hmm…


	3. Trauma and Death

**Chapter 3: Trauma and Death

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**Disclaimer: **Since the boys are locked in the closet, I can safely state that they are under my control, but… #cries hysterically# I still don't own them! … #grins evilly# But they are still locked in _my_ closet…

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**A/N:** I am an American writer and 16 years old. Sorry if my dialect isn't correct.

Also, school just started for me and I am probably not going to be able to update very often, but I will try my hardest. I am going to write the chapters extra long for you all though!

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**Note:**

This story won't be very many chapters… It is on purpose. The real storyline kinda starts with the 'Sequel'… actually… I don't know if I should call it the sequel or not… cuz this is the prequel… so… umm… hmm…

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#_blah, blah, blah_# -speech in Parseltongue

_Blah blah blah_ -spell, accented word, or writtenletter

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_**>>November 1, 2005 >>**_

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'Damnit… I thought the bloody git had left.' Harry cursed again and stunned the woman that had spotted him, just as he was hit by the Cruciatus Curse from behind. The world exploded in pain, his scar adding to the agony. He somehow heard a low, raspy, hissing laugh from somewhere behind him through the screams issuing from his mouth. Voldemort lifted the curse so that Harry would stop screaming and could hear him.

"You should have just surrendered. It wouldn't have been less painful, but at least it would have been quicker…" Harry heard Malfoy scream again as he himself panted and twitched from the still existent pain.

"Bastard… leave Malfoy… out… of it," Harry strained out. Voldemort chuckled.

"I can't just let the little blood traitor go just… like… that…" He accentuated each word, ticking his long, sickly pale finger side to side when he said the last three words. "Not to mention… if I stopped him now, Lucius might be… disappointed…" Harry went cold, his eyes widening. He knew that Draco (1) had hesitated killing Dumbledore, but he wasn't aware of how far Draco's punishments had gone.

Harry then realized the implications of what Draco had said previously. 'Waited six months? He stayed with them after he was… tortured!' Harry resolved himself to get the whole truth from the young Malfoy as soon as the battle was over. Then his stomach clenched. He might _not_ live through it…

Harry tried to grip his wand and fight back, but for some reason his limbs wouldn't respond. Harry focused. 'If I could just disarm him.' Amazingly, Harry saw Voldemort's wand go flying through the air. Harry felt a soft probing thought in his mind, but he pushed it aside unconsciously. Harry used the bought time to roll away from him and tried to hit him with the Sectumsempra spell. Voldemort waved his hand and his wand returned to it and he managed to block the spell at the same time.

Then Harry saw Draco Malfoy run by, his father and another Death Eater chasing after him with multitudes of spells, and Harry realized that it must have been him that had disarmed Voldemort.

'Why can't He just die already… I doubt that running Him over with a bloody _train_ would even kill Him," Harry thought, dodging his counter spell. Voldemort threw a couple more spells his way but Harry managed to dodge them barely. Harry rolled again as a blinding light of white flew just over his back. Harry felt the repercussions of the spell across his back and landed heavily, his back burning almost unbearably. He rolled over to dodge another, but that just worsened the pain. Harry bit back a yell, his back burning horribly from whatever Voldemort had tried to hit him with. He quickly rolled over again and got to his feet, ducking behind a tree.

"I told you once to die on your feet, fighting like a real man… You don't want to beg now, Harry Potter… do you?" Harry jerked around to the other side of the tree when he heard Voldemort use the white whip spell again. Unfortunately, it wrapped around the tree, pinning Harry to it. Harry could feel the whip burning into his flesh as he screamed in torment. It was all he could do not to pass out right then. He could feel his consciousness slipping away, but his fear kept his mind straight. Suddenly he felt the whip fall away and he fell to his knees and then forward onto the ground. He lay there for a minute, catching his breath, his eyes scrunched up, trying not to clutch his burning stomach. A large explosion erupted behind Harry, where Voldemort was. Harry closed his eyes when the dust from the blast reached him and then tried to quickly scramble onto his feet.

He stumbled as he came up but caught himself on someone that was standing near him. Draco Malfoy held him steady, his eyes searching the dust storm for Voldemort's black form. Harry, as quick as he could, untangled his arms from Draco's and searched also. A sharp movement caught both of their attentions and both of them, at the exact same time, cast different spells. Draco cast the killing curse while Harry yelled "_Sectumsempra._" Malfoy looked a bit unsettled by the spell Harry used and vice versa, but as the dust cleared, they saw that they hadn't seen one shadow, but two. Crabbe and Nott lay on the ground. Harry's spell had caught Nott directly in the face, so Harry could see little bits of his face and brain littering the ground around the two bodies.

'I think I'm gonna be sick…' Harry's eyes were wide and his face extremely pale, but he still kept his head; they still didn't know where Voldemort was. Harry swallowed the bit of bile that threatened to come up. 'I've never had to actually kill someone before…' Harry suddenly felt a prickly feeling on the back of his neck so he dived to the ground and took Malfoy with him. 'Might as well help him since he's all I have,' Harry figured. Harry landed directly on top of Malfoy and then rolled off once he was sure the spell from Voldemort was past. He pointed his wand at Harry and did another silent spell. To Harry's amazement, Draco blocked the spell for both of them, muttering something about it not changing anything. Harry tried to rein his anger towards Voldemort away from Draco, but it was starting to spill over.

"You're still being a damn prat… now shut the bloody hell up… _Waddiwassi_…" Harry yelled, half glaring at Draco. He said the spell while pointing his wand at a bush with large, sharp thorns on them. All of the thorns suddenly leaped off the bush and shot at Voldemort with the force of a bullet. Voldemort shielded himself against all of them unfortunately. Wormtail got hit with the lot of them, so he had a bunch of angry red puncture wounds from the large thorns on both of his forearms. Then suddenly, Belatrix appeared almost out of nowhere and blasted Draco with the Reductor Curse.

'Why didn't she just kill…' Harry almost swore. They weren't dead yet because Voldemort must still want to use Harry for something. They had been missing with the death spells on purpose. Harry whipped his head around to see if Malfoy was alright, but that precious time that he looked away was just enough for Voldemort to hit him with another curse. Harry flew backwards from the white whip and landed almost right next to Malfoy, who was getting up off the ground. Harry groaned, but didn't try to get up. He coughed and could feel a bit of bloody saliva run down his chin. The whip had caught him right in the gut again, but this time, it had stuck slightly instead of just flicking him immediately backwards. Harry distantly heard Malfoy yelling for him to get up. His eyes flickered open just as Voldemort strode into his range of vision. He heard the whip hit his body again, but he was almost numb to it already. Almost. Harry cringed into a tight ball as the whip repeatedly hit him. Over and over and over.

After a while, Harry didn't know how long, he just lay there instead of cringing. It hurt. Merlin it hurt. Harry didn't even bother to try to close his eyes in anticipation of the next blow. It was over. He had lost. He wasn't strong enough. It was his fault that those people had died for a lost cause. It was his fault that everyone else would soon die; starting with Malfoy. It was his fault that he couldn't stand against the pain. It was his fault that he let the pain overcome him.

Harry heard all of those thoughts flicker lethargically one by one through his mind. Unconsciously, he stood up, his face not betraying the pain any longer. He hazily saw the elder Malfoy, standing over his unconscious son, watching him in surprise and quite possibly fear. He felt him own hand grip his wand even tighter. He looked at the scene, feeling distant, like he was watching a Muggle film reel, like he had no control over what his own person was doing. He even only distantly felt the pure, unadorned rage that built up inside him, almost reaching a breaking point before he let it out all in one curse. He vaguely saw the blinding green light reach towards Voldemort and then Voldemort start to fall to the ground. But his body never hit the ground. It glowed a brilliant green, the color of the AK curse. Harry numbly looked down at his own body and realized that he was glowing, too. Then, the world slammed back into place. He was momentarily blinded by the light, but he felt a horrible stinging pain from his scar.

Holding his throbbing scar, Harry fought to see Voldemort. Abruptly, it stopped hurting. Harry rubbed his hand over it, but he couldn't figure out exactly where it was. Harry rubbed in a bit of a larger area, trying to find it. It was gone. Rapidly, the light disappeared, and Harry blinked to get the dots dancing in his vision to go away. He looked around wildly, but the only thing he could see where Voldemort's body was, was a large pile of ash.

Harry heard at least five or six sudden bangs in the air as just that many Death Eaters, the only ones that could, Disapparated because their master was dead. The only one left in the graveyard was the young Malfoy. Harry dropped like a rock once the light was completely gone, the pain from the multiple burns all over mostly his back and stomach making standing pretty much impossible. Harry turned his head slightly to try to keep his eye on Malfoy, but that sent shooting pains up his neck. He bit back a yell and relaxed his neck muscles, hoping it would keep them from hurting. Unfortunately the neck muscles seemed to be practically torn out from all the abuse they, and the rest of Harry, had gone through. Harry hissed as his neck muscles started to cramp. He tried to relax and doze, to regain his strength. For about an hour or two, he slept on. At least until he noticed a large shadow fall across his body.

Lucius Malfoy was standing over him, his eyes wild. He snatched Harry's wand from his hand and chucked it over his shoulder.

"_Crucio,_" Harry heard him strain through his teeth. Harry's eyes contracted from the sudden, worsened pain. The power of the curse showed just how angry Malfoy was. He writhed on the ground, unable to even gasp for air because of the intense pain of the curse. Lucius Malfoy just stood there, his hair in disarray, half of it pulled from the tie he used, dirt and sweat streaking his cold face. Harry's vision blurred, but he could still see Malfoy sneer at him, rage seething from every motion he made.

"You'll regret killing the Dark Lord, Potter," he spat scornfully. "Oh yes, you'll regret it immensely." He laughed insanely. "And so will your friends, when we _personally _deliver your tortured body." Harry's eyes snapped open, his pupils dilated in fury. Mistaking the look in Harry's eyes for fear, Lucius laughed again. "Oh don't worry, Potter. We'll give them the same as you. I'll just be sorry that you won't be around to see them in their _finest _hour."

Harry fought through the darkness that threatened to take over his mind, his eyes power being fed by Malfoy's words. He searched for one word that would help him. He didn't even care that his wand was laying about a hundred feet away, near that bodies of Crabbe and Nott. He didn't care that he was still under the Cruciatus Curse. He forced out the first offensive spell that came to mind. "_Sectumsempra_!"

Malfoy's face only had enough time to register shock before he staggered backward. Bloody gashes had appeared across his chest and face. He staggered again before he fell backwards and the Curse on Harry lifted. Harry just lay there, gasping and choking, trying to reclaim the oxygen that he had been unable to get only moments before. His body twitched and jerked, after effects of Curse. The sudden silence in the bloody and scorched clearing was deafening in Harry's ears. He lay there, waiting for his breathing to stabilize. He opened his eyes a slit and realized for the first time that the sun had been up for quite some time. It looked to be about 7:30am. He had fought the Death Eaters for about 8 hours straight… and lived. Harry leaned his head down again and sighed deeply. It was all over. He hadn't failed everyone… And he was still alive…

Harry heard a stone being kicked a few feet away, so he jerked his head towards the sound to his left, attempting to ignore his complaining neck muscles, and absently called out to his wand. Harry almost took his eyes off the dark form that had been making its way over to Lucius Malfoy's motionless body when he felt his wand in his hand suddenly. Draco Malfoy, favoring his right shoulder, stopped when he realized that Harry was alive. Still twitching slightly, Harry attempted to roll over to his stomach so that he might try to stand, but even that movement made him cry out in pain. Draco made to take a step towards him, but Harry flashed a glare at him so he stayed where he was. Harry pushed himself up on his hands and knees, gasping from the pain.

"Don't you… bloody… come near me…" Harry tried to snap. He could feel blood dripping down his back and down his head, matting his already sweat plastered hair.

'Damn him… father… he killed him…' Harry jerked his head back in surprise. He had been looking the young Malfoy directly in the eye and had… heard his thoughts! He was sure Malfoy's lips hadn't moved in the least.

'But I'm not a Legilimens! I can barely bloody do Occlumency!' Harry swallowed, half because of disbelief, half from pain when he tried to stand for the first time. He didn't make it up, so instead he sat back against a small headstone, one that had partially destroyed in the fight. He regarded Malfoy suspiciously but Malfoy answered what he thought was Harry's question before Harry could say anything.

"Cool it, Potter. I don't care if you still don't trust me…" He pointed at Lucius. "I just want you to hurry up and kill him." He spoke with such vehemence that that Harry's eyes widened slightly. He was about to try to use the Legilimency again, but he was looking at the elder Malfoy instead of at Harry.

'But what were the thoughts just now… it sounded like he was pissed that I might have killed his father, but now he is saying that he wants his father dead… not to mention what I heard from Voldemort… he said Draco was punished for his weakness. And his father tortured him during the battle mercilessly! Why would he want his father to live?'

"Why the sudden change of sides, Malfoy? Did you finally realize that being Voldemort's dog wasn't all it was cut out to be?" Harry spoke calmly enough, but he wasn't about to let his guard down. Malfoy finally looked back at him, his trademark sneer plastered on his face, masking his emotions. But through the eye contact, Harry could feel the anger and pain.

"Why do you suddenly care? Saint Potter. Always playing his role as the Savior of the Wizarding world… Now, I'll bet your _fans _are going to-"

"_Malfoy_," Harry hissed angrily, interrupting the rant, "Will you drop your _damn_ schoolboy grudge for two bloody seconds and send up a damn flare…" Harry's voice trailed off at the end as he clutched his aching stomach. Now that he was staying still, the burns were being subjected to the sun through the torn shreds of his overly large shirt and they were stinging horribly. He was pretty confident that Malfoy was no longer a Death Eater, but he didn't want to take any chances. To Harry's surprise, Malfoy didn't argue, he just sighed.

"What color?" he asked dully.

"Blue."

Harry looked over to the right, checking on the senior Malfoy. His stomach dropped horribly fast. He wasn't there.

"_Fuck_!" He cursed loudly.

Malfoy looked towards where Harry was looking and his face paled considerably. "He must have Disapparated…" Harry shook his head.

"No… we would have heard it…"

Harry froze. A wand was being jabbed into his back and he felt an arm snake its way around his neck after snatching his wand from him. Draco stared back at Harry and his father.

"Stupid, boys. Very stupid. Draco… I thought I had taught you better… Tsk, tsk, tsk." Lucius removed his own wand from Harry's back and pointed it at his son while still pointing Harry's wand at Harry's throat.

"_Avada Kedavra_," Lucius shouted, throwing the curse at his son first. Draco managed to just barely duck and in the process he shot a huge ball of blue sparks hundreds of feet into the air. Then he aimed a disarming spell at them. Harry's wand flew out of Lucius's hand, but he had deflected the spell partially, so his own wand stayed in his hand.

Lucius tried then to Disapparate, but Harry jabbed him in the gut as hard as he possibly could with his elbow. Movement caught Harry's eye. Another Death Eater, the one that Harry had put the Levicorpus spell on earlier, was advancing on them. She hit Draco with a binding spell.

Harry didn't even bother to dive for his wand and just yelled "_Reducto._" A loud bang issued out of nowhere, when it should have come from his wand, and the woman flew backwards and slammed into a thick tree trunk.

'Now or never… too many of the Death Eaters have already escaped…'

He saw Lucius towering over his still bound son. 'No… not yet' Harry thought, but the spell had already been cast. Harry leapt to his feet and magically untied Draco just as he managed to intercept the Avada Kedavra spell the only way he knew how. Harry, feeling distinctly numb, watched the young Malfoy's eyes widen to an impossibly large size as he watched Harry fall. Draco scrambled to Harry's side, mouth opened in a silent scream of horror.

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**Miles away**,a long trilling note issued from Dumbledore's faithful pet and companion, Fawkes. Dumbledore looked at him curiously. Usually, only if the owner of the phoenix died, would the bird give it's mourning call. Fawkes had returned to his side seconds after Dumbledore had shown himself to be alive. The bird was quite remarkable. Strangely enough, the bird had only obeyed or even helped one person other than himself without him telling Fawkes to. Harry Potter, also, was the only one, other than Dumbledore himself, that had ever had the privilege to be healed by his tears of healing. Actually Harry had been healed quite a few times by them. Even people that had known the phoenix for decades were not given some of the privileges that Harry was given by Fawkes.

Fawkes flew out the window, letting everyone know its torment by its sorrowful lament. He could hear a few people outside pointing out the bird to others, wondering why he was so upset. A sudden scraping sound let Dumbledore know that someone was coming up the spiral staircase to his study. All at once, Professors Hagrid, McGonagall, and Snape burst through the doorway, all very alarmed.

"What, may I ask, is troubling all of you this early?" Dumbledore inquired, his eyes looking strangely dull. He had a bad feeling that something was amiss and that Fawkes had merely picked up on it before anyone else.

"W-we though', Dumbledore sir… that y' were… Well yeh see… th' last time anyone 'eard that bird make tha' kinda ruckus was when we though' y' were dead… and… err…" Hagrid stuttered, trying to phrase it exactly right, but Dumbledore understood just perfectly.

"As you can see I am quite alright… However… I think that Fawkes knows something that we don't…" he adds sadly, his jaw clenched in worry. Silence filled the room until the clock behind Dumbledore's desk chimed half past seven. The silence lengthened in the cool morning air as they listened to Fawkes for another minute or two. A loud blast echoed throughout the room, disturbing the unearthly silence and a letter appeared on Dumbledore's desk.

Just as he was reaching for the letter, an area in the middle of the room shimmered and then the haggard forms of Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley appeared. Hermione looked around wildly, like she had been watching something just as the portkey was activated. Dumbledore's breath caught in his throat when he caught her gaze. Her eyes filled up with tears.

"H-he… he's there all alone! Y-you h-have to help him!" Immediately, his eyes darted to the piece of parchment clutched in his hand. He unfolded it hurriedly and read the inside.

_Dumbledore,_

_If you ever want to see the redhead and the Mudblood again, you will send Harry Potter, alone, via the Triwizard Cup portkey that will activate as the clock strikes 11 o'clock P.M. on this, the 31st of October. We will exchange their safety for his lone arrival._

_-Lord Voldemort-_

From the corner of his eye, he saw Professor McGonagall edge closer. Dumbledore wordlessly handed her the note and then rubbed his temples with his long fingers on his left hand, his right still being withered and unusable. He heard her gasp, so he slowly looked up; the normal twinkle in his eyes seemed like a distant, happy memory. Her face was now pale and her hand trembled as she prepared to read the paper out loud, but something on the back caught Dumbledore's eye. He caught her hand to hold the paper still and saw the note scribbled on the back.

_Professor Dumbledore,_

_I will send up a blue flare when everything is over. The spell I will have sent Ron and Hermione back with, if all went well, was for the same time as this note to appear. The portkey was cloaked so the spell (which would automatically send them and this note to your office should I die) would not give you the location of where the exchange was so you wouldn't join the battle and needlessly risk lives. I will, at very least, destroy the snake Nagini, the second to last of Voldemort's Horcruxes._

_I'm sorry. I know you will all miss me and are probably very angry with me right now, but I must do this. I love you all._

_-Harry_

Dumbledore sighed and sadly lowered his eyes, but then quickly jerked his head up again.

He suddenly stood up and rushed over to an old writing desk. It was a beautiful dark mahogany color with a filing place and three drawers underneath that; a glass door on the left and a large surface area on top. Much of it was cluttered, but the drawers must have been magically expanded, because Dumbledore levitated many large boxes out of the bottom drawer before he found the one he was looking for.

After checking the label, he opened the box and pulled out a few rolled up pieces of parchment, what looked like maps. He kept checking the contents and then discarding them one after another. He was about to discard another, but he stopped and opened it again. He smiled tightly, but then hurried back to his desk and opened it to it's full length; just bigger than the desk. He silently spelled it to stay flat and then scanned it for a tell-tale spot of bright blue.

'Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. No-' "There!" He exclaimed out loud. McGonagall and Hagrid gathered near him, attempting to see what he was pointing his finger at. He moved his finger so that it wasn't directly on top of the place on the map. Minerva looked at him quizzically, but then comprehension dawned on her face and she looked back at the map excitedly. If the blue flare was Harry's doing, then that meant he was alive and that he won.

But something was still nagging at the back of Dumbledore's mind. If Fawkes had known about Voldemort's death, his song wouldn't have been as desolate and haunting as it was; it would have been joyful. And there was one more thing. Harry had said that the note would manifest itself at an appointed time. Why would he have set it to a few minutes after 7:30 AM? Dumbledore sighed, causing Hermione, who had been undoubtedly been watching him, to start slightly.

"What is it, sir?" she asked, as though afraid of the answer. Dumbledore shook his head slightly.

"We mustn't get our hopes up that he is perfectly alright. You all know that right?" he asked, looking pointedly at the two youths sitting in front of him. He could see Ron swallow slightly, but both nodded.

"He just has to be alright… He's beaten You- err… V-Voldemort every time in the past, why shouldn't he beat him to a pulp this time?" Ron nearly whispered, his freckles standing out on his pale face. He looked distinctly green, but he was also very determined.

"Alright… Everyone, no not you Severus, you are still wounded. Everyone, touch the map and we will go." Dumbledore cleared his throat and then activated the locater spell on the map. In a blink of an eye, they were all standing in the middle of the graveyard. Dozens on motionless bodies were laying on the ground, none of them moving. Dumbledore could identify almost all of the bodies nearest to him and too many of them were men and women that worked at the Ministry. He spied Draco Malfoy sitting upright, shaking slightly, his head buried in his knees. It sounded like he was muttering curses at some invisible foe.

Draco finally looked up. From what Dumbledore could see, he had either been crying for a while or was at leastnear to. His eyes were red, but his injuries were quite more extensive. He had bruises already forming on most of the skin that could be seen, cuts being almost as frequent, and the whole extent of the damage was not within eyesight. Draco looked like he was twitching slightly, possibly an after effect of either the Cruciatus Curse or even from sheer exhaustion or possibly both.

"He… he's dead"

It wasn't the state of Draco that disturbed Dumbledore, it was the look in his eyes. Something had happened to traumatize him this badly.

"Who? Who is dead? He Who Must Not Be Named?" McGonagall asked sharply. Draco's body shuddered with every breath he took. He muttered a quick "not who I was talking about" and then bent over his knees again, his head held in one hand.

Dumbledore scanned the ground near Draco and his breath caught in his throat. Harry, his clothes torn to shreds and soaked with blood, was laying motionless on the ground on the other side of Draco. Harry's blood streaked skin was too pale, a sickly ashen color. He heard Hermione sob and then wrap her arms around Ron's neck. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Savior of the Wizarding world, was dead.

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**_(This is not the end…)_** Continued in "Death is Never Clearly Defined" (title subject to change)

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**Acknowledgements:**

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**To: ****themaraudersaremine** Thank you so much for reviewing! #grabs keyboard back# Well you _did _say… #looks up what exactly you said# (and I quote…) "…whatever comes to hand including the keyboard…" HA! Can't take it back now!

**To: Anonymous: jessy: **Does it look like I'm ending it last chapter? … wait… I confuzzled myself…Anyway… I could never do that to my Draco. Actually I'm ending it this chapter… teehee… Yeah… I'm evil…Thanks for reviewing!

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**Notes:**

(1): Sorry I keep calling Draco Malfoy by his first name (even though it is through Harry's POV) but I figured it would be confusing to call both of them Malfoy…

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**NEW IDEAS ARE WELCOME!**


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